Module I: "Blasphemous Rumours" Part I
The Blue Dart was an unfortunately named ship, but the Captain had taken her in with good graces, even making sure the bright blue paint that coated the hull was smooth and unblemished. And the little ship did dart, as it turns out -- she was a fast ship, although small. So the Captain had decided that his niche was in passage, not cargo. Airships were already few and expensive, so if one wanted to travel between the islands, booking passage on a freelance ship like his was the best way to go.
This particular voyage was not one of his better ones; the passenger hold had only three takers for a four day flight to Razina, one of the most important towns in the kingdom of Cassant, and one that was perched on the very edge of the Great Island, a continent sized chunk of rock that floats unmoving in the Day Realm. The Blue Dart was making good time, and if his navigation was accurate, the Captain believed he'd beat his schedule, arriving in just a few hours. He put the glass to his eye again, scanning the sky in front of him to see if there was any sign of his destination.
Clear, brilliant light bathed the entire world around him; far below was a puffy floor of clouds that stretched out as far as the eye could see -- which in this clear air was very far indeed -- in every direction. Above him, the brilliant yellowish white sun made him squint; although he saw the brightly striated orange and tan globe of Fallare suspended like a gigantic moon in the sky. Later today, it would obscure the sun, giving a relatively short nightfall; an event that only occurred once a week in Razina. A small chunk of rock; an island no more than a few miles across, rose off his port bow. Through the glass, he could see a bank of gray fog ahead, dank, forbidding and cold. He shivered a bit, but accepted that his destination most likely was lying just within that bank of fog.
He heard the ringing of the cook's bell; the passenger's meal was served. He stuffed the glass under his belt, and determined that as the Captain, he should share this final meal with them, and tell them the news that he expected to arrive before lunch. He clambered down the stairs into the passenger's hold. Three small cots were folded up and out of the way, and three sat at a table bolted to the floor, talking and eating a meal of salt pork sandwiches, liberally seasoned with lemon juice, and reasonably fresh water. The fare on ship wasn't great, but it was healthy enough. The Captain decided he would seek out a good hot meal as soon as he was berthed.
"Good morning, fellows!" he said as he sat next to them. They nodded and continued eating. The three passengers were nothing if not an unusual group, but they seemed to have hit it off fairly well during the course of their journey, and were now talking animatedly of seeking lodgings in the same inn, and even helping each other in their various goals in Razina.
"Good morning to you, Cap'n," said Tson, clapping him on the back. Tson was a hulk; one of the Bred folk. His ancestors had been selected for their strength, endurance, and ability to withstand harsh conditions. He was fairly large, as were most of his race, and the sharp definition of his enormous muscles was hidden by a fine layer of down-like fur. Tson was albino, however, and instead of the reddish brown that most of the hulks sported, his fur was a strange pale gray. The large fellow was normally taciturn, and the Captain had not expected him to give him the first friendly welcome. Rumor had it that he was an escaped, or perhaps freed, slave in some far-off place, where he fought as a gladiator. He rarely wore more than a ragged kilt around his waist, belted with a chain, and the Captain could believe that he was a former gladiator. His unclothed chest was criss-crossed with a fine network of scars, most of them old.
"Indeed, 'tis a fine morning! The view from the deck was spectacular," acknowledged Roshan Boh. Also one of the Bred folk, Boh was in many ways a complete opposite of Tson. He was quite garrulous, to the point of often not knowing when to shut up. The Captain was initially suspicious of having a gray on the ship, but Roshan was a friendly enough sort, and the Captain had come to like him over the course of the last few days. He was short, and quite gracile, with chalky, colorless skin, piercing blue eyes that darted about like a hyper-alert hawk as he spoke. His short hair was dark, and his body was wiry yet hard and supple. He did not speak of his background, and the Captain wondered what this one used to do, although he privately suspected he had been trained as a spy, assassin, or both at some point in his life. Regardless, his motives for traveling to Razina seemed to be his own.
The final traveler was also a quiet one for the most part, Konrad, the only Unbred human of the bunch. The Captain privately wished he could follow him around for a while to see how he reacted to life in the extremely large and populous city of Razina. Konrad clearly had not spent much time in high society; he was dressed in leathers, and had more hair on his head and face than any four other men the Captain had ever seen. When he did speak, as often as not he made some obscure reference to outdoor life, as if the others could possibly understand metaphors or sayings related to the mating habits of a wild thuin, or the truculence of a herd of inwns.
Still, for all their idiosyncrasies, they were a good lot, and the Captain had enjoyed giving them passage more than many he had booked over the years. He would almost be sad to reach his destination and drop them off in the urban wilds of Razina. "We're making better time than I expected," he said, which prompted an impromptu toast with their water cups. "This'll be our last meal on the Blue Dart, I'm afraid, so I thought I should spend a few minutes with..."
He stopped as Collins came barreling down the stair, his face flushed and nervous. "Cap'n!" he said. "Another ship, off the port bow and up 30 degrees. They're heading is straight for us."
The Captain stood, his face a bit nervous. "If you'll excuse me a moment, gentlemen..." then he walked upstairs. The three passengers watched him go, only Tson continuing to wolf down his food as fast as he could.
"That doesn't sound good," said Konrad sourly. "Suppose we should see what's up?"
Roshan waved aside the suggestion. "Surely the Captain and his crew are qualified to deal with these types of things more than we. There's no reason we should interrupt our last meal on the Dart is there?"
Tson grunted. "If it does mean trouble, we'll be glad we ate, anyway." Indeed, Tson had finished his food, and began rummaging through the hold looking for anything they could use as a weapon. He found a long chain, rusted and dirty, but made of heavy iron. "Here, Roshan, this little girl's sword looks like it might be your style." He handed the gray a slim blade, with bad balance and dotted with orange rust. Roshan smiled mirthlessly. Indeed, he did prefer the dancing rapier to the next shoddy blade Roshan found in a chest, a huge piece that Konrad looked pleased with.
"What's that for, chopping wood?" Roshan asked innocently. "Because I can't imagine that would do you any good in a fight."
"Wood or bones, what's the difference?" Konrad leered, but their banter was interrupted by a sudden lurch in the floor that sent them crashing. The heard a sickening splintering sound, and the Dart did not right herself.
Tson was the first to hop up, but all three quickly followed up the stairs. "Glad we found these; I could feel trouble coming..." the large man said. They burst out on the tilted deck to see that they had been nicely rammed and grappled by a larger ship. The Captain stood on the deck shouting orders to his small crew, who were valiantly trying to hold off a swarm of boarders. Collins was the first to go down, hit by a pirate swinging on a line, and pushed over the side. His screams took a long time to fade as he plunged into the void. Then Bradburn was shot in the face with an enormous blast from a pistol that another of the pirates wielded. The tide of invaders rushed their deck; at least six or seven.
Tson swung his chain in a wide arc, first causing the one with the pistol to duck, then catching his arm on the return stroke. The pistol fell from his arm to slide across the deck, and Tson yanked the man down, where he slid as well to land at Tson's feet. The hulk kicked him cruelly, a blow designed to break his neck. Then he waded into the melee, his chain sending the pirates flying. Roshan Boh also dived into combat with a grin on his face. The sword he had was not good, but he wielded it like a dervish. It danced through the pirates, leaving pierced lungs, slashed throats and severed hamstrings in its wake. Konrad, on the other hand, decided he needed to take the battle to the enemy, so he leapt into the air with one of the pirate's own grappling lines in his hand. He slipped attempting this bit of derring-do, though, and slammed into the side of their ship. Only through purest luck, he was able to grab the edge of their deck with his fingertips, where he held on for dear life, the echoes of Collins' screams as he disappeared into the void filling his ears.
Everyone paused for a moment as a strange, clunking noise came from the bowels of the Blue Dart, followed immediately by "Rat" Galloway, one of the nastier members of the crew. "The lift engines!" he shouted hysterically. "They're gonna blow!" For the less ship-savvy passengers, the meaning of this was not clear, but obviously it was not good news. Even the pirates who still stood blanched, turned and ran back to their own vessel. Tson and Roshan knew how to take a cue from them, and climbed along the great wooden ram to climb up on the deck of the pirate ship. The Captain and the Rat also pitched themselves over the railing just as the lift engines exploded with a thunderous blast. Everyone was thrown to the deck, even Konrad, who was lifted over the railing by the explosion, landed heavily on top of one of the pirates. Then the deck tilted sharply downward.
The two ships were stuck together, and with the lift engines gone on the Dart, it was dead weight. The pirate ship angled sharply, as everybody and everything loose slid along the deck to smash into the front railing. Konrad pitched one of the pirates who had slid into him over the side. Then with a lurch, the ship righted and seemed to bounce for a moment. The ram had broken finally, and the Dart had fallen. The Captain sobbed slightly as he leaned over the rail, watching his fortune plummet down into the cloudbank, many hundreds of feet below them, to finally disappear for good.
The three passengers stood and shook their heads. There were only two pirates left; a dispirited and wounded group that offered no more fight. Roshan Boh took his crappy rapier and held it under the chin of one of the pirates. "Maybe you can tell me what the meaning of this is?" he said quietly, but very chillingly.
"Right," said Tson. "Konrad and I will just see if this barge has anything of value we can loot, eh?" The two larger men disappeared into the bowels of the pirate ship, while the Captain and the Rat went to inspect the ship they found themselves on. In just a moment, the Captain came running back upstairs, his face slightly green.
Roshan Boh turned from his uncommunicative prisoner to see what the problem was. "Well, now I know why they were so desperate to board us," the Captain said. "Their lift engine's going out. We'll be lucky if we can make it to land in this piece of junk." With that, the ship suddenly dropped ten feet before straining to catch itself.
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